Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

On 23 May 1936, the Gestapa issued a two-month ban on the ‘Ring’, Bund
Jüdischer Jugend, 108 previously known as the Bund deutsch-jüdischer Jugend. 109
This became permanent on 30 December 1936, when it was dissolved. The
Gestapa indicated that the dissolution had arisen due to the organisation’s
members’ continued wearing of uniforms and the practice of military-style
exercises in spite of the ban on both practices. 110 This organisation was
subsequently dissolved in Magdeburg, where it had a large membership of youth
who fondly recall both the uniform and the activities. 111
On 10 April 1937, all organisational bodies of the B’nai B’rith in Germany
were eliminated, associated property and bank accounts confiscated and strict
instructions given to all branch offices of the Gestapo on how to execute the
dissolutions. Particular attention was to be paid to the collection of all files,
particularly those on personnel, and the directive was given for the imprisonment
of the office-bearers of each lodge until the process of liquidation was completed.
The homes of all office-bearers were to be searched for material associated with
their respective lodges. 112 At that time the registered address for the Mendelssohn
Loge in Magdeburg was Breiter Weg 139–140 and the president and vice-
108
Correspondence from the Prussian office of the Gestapo, Berlin to the president of
the Berlin Regional Union of the ‘Ring’, Bund Jüdischer Jugend, 23 May 1936,
Bestand 1, 75C Ar 1, Signatur Nr. 5, CJA, p. 67.
109
For an extensive discussion on the reactions of the ‘Ring’, Bund deutsch-jüdischer
Jugend (and the re-named ‘Ring’, Bund Jüdischer Jugend) to Nazism, see Chaim
Schatzker, “The Jewish Youth Movement in Germany in the Holocaust Period (I) –
Youth in Confrontation with a New Reality,” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, vol.
XIX, 1974, pp. 157–181 and Chaim Schatzker, “The Jewish Youth Movement in
Germany in the Holocaust Period (II) – The Relations between the Youth Movement
and the Hechaluz,” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, vol. XXXIII, 1988, pp. 301–325.
110
Auflösung des ‘Rings’, Bund jüdischer Jugend, 30. Dezember 1936, Collection
JM, File 10624, YVA, p. 163.
111
Jensen, op. cit., 14 June 1999.
112
Auflösung des ‘Unabhängigen Ordens Bne Briss’, 10. April 1937, Bestand Rep. C
20 I. I b, Signatur Nr. 1831, Band IV, LHASA MD, pp. 15–19.
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